Seles emerges, reports injured legMonica Seles, whose...

Sports briefly

July 16, 1991

Seles emerges, reports injured leg

Monica Seles, whose whereabouts and health have been a mystery since she withdrew from Wimbledon last month, said in a statement issued through her Cleveland-based agent that her injury was "shin splints and a slight stress fracture in my left leg."

Seles said she might have gone public earlier, "but I did not want to make a statement with contradicting facts in it because I might have misled my fans and the public."

She said that injury first occurred in March 1991, and that she re-injured the leg at the French Open during practice.

The world's top-ranked player will play this week in the Pathmark Tennis Classic at Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.J. Seles will hold a news conference at Ramapo tomorrow, the day before she plays her opening match in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Federation Cup officials in Nottingham, England said they still expect Seles to represent Yugoslavia in the 56-nation women's tennis event next week.

* Martina Navratilova will be forced to miss two TeamTennis matches to give testimony tomorrow in her lawsuit with former roommate Judy Nelson in Fort Worth, Texas.

* American Kevin Curren lost to Horatio de la Pena of Argentina, 6-4, 6-4, in the first round of the $1 million ATP tournament Stuttgart. Other winners were Andres Gomez, Wally Masur, Javier Sanchez and Marcelo Filippini.

Olympics

The United States will learn the makeup of its 1992 Olympic basketball team, which Olympic assistant Mike Krzyzewski hinted could include Magic Johnson, David Robinson and Karl Malone, on Sept. 21.

The pro players selected will be announced on an NBC special, said Bill Wall, executive director of USA Basketball.

NBA players are eligible for Olympic competition for the first time in '92, and the pros are expected to come from a pool of players who have expressed interest. But Wall said Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics may not be available.

Auto racing

Championship Auto Racing Teams, the Indy-car sanctioning body, has fined drivers Danny Sullivan and Willy T. Ribbs and placed both on probation after an on-track incident and an off-track shouting match at Sunday's Marlboro Grand Prix in East Rutherford, N.J.

Sullivan, apparently frustrated at not being able to get past Ribbs' lapped car late in the race, clipped the front of the slower Lola as he drove past on the cool-down lap. The front wing was damaged on Ribbs' car.

Derrick Walker, owner of Walker Motorsports, which fields a car for Ribbs, filed an official protest after the race over what he said was rough driving by Sullivan.

Colleges

Illinois basketball player Deon Thomas, whose recruitment led to an NCAA investigation, filed a civil lawsuit against an Iowa coach over tape-recorded telephone conversations.

Thomas alleges that Iowa assistant coach Bruce Pearl secretly recorded conversations with Thomas, his relatives and an acquaintance, altered some of the contents, then made them public.

* Sexual-abuse charges were dismissed against a Syracuse University basketball recruit who the judge said became the real victim when a student accused him of rape during a recruiting visit. Onondaga County District Judge J. Kevin Mulroy dismissed the case against Wilfred Kirkaldy, 18, of Brooklyn, after the judge was presented with evidence that he said refuted the prosecution's case. Kirkaldy will play basketball at West Virginia next fall.

Diving

Jeff Harrison of Loyola Middle School, competing in the boys 13-and-under division for the Chesapeake Bay Diving Club of Towson, finished eighth in the 3-meter event at the U.S. Diving Junior Olympic Zone A Championships, which ended Sunday in Bethesda. Harrison also finished 11th in the platform event and 23rd in the 1-meter competition.

Clara Hilton of Hereford High finished 15th in the 1-meter event in the girls 14-15 division for the Chesapeake club.

Basketball

The New Jersey Nets have reached an agreement in principle with the Ranger Varese team on a cash settlement allowing Reggie Theus out of the final year of his NBA contract so he can sign a three-year,estimated $4 million deal with the Italian

League club.

Golf

Daryl Martin of Tampa,Fla shot a 2-under 70 to tie two other golfers for the first-round lead at the 66th U.S.Amateur public Links Championship in Columbus, Ohio Richard Mayo and Jason Nishimoto teammates at Texas-El Pasothis past season, also had 70s onthe Otter Creek course.

World University Games

Brian Pajer won the United States' first gold medal of the 16th World University Games when he raced to victory in the men's 100-meter breast stroke in Sheffield, England,

The 23-year-old swimmer from Cal-Irvine led from the start, was a foot clearat the turn and won in 1 minute, 3.21 seconds.